Judging by the comments on Indy councillor Khan’s twitter page it seems the local Labour party is leaking like a sieve. Either that or councillor Khan has at least one mole in the Labour ranks or is being feed information by a disgruntled council officer who is sick of the current regime.

According to councillor Khan, yesterday’s joint monthly Labour party meeting agreed to accept the council leader’s recommendations on Special Education Needs schools. This means that the Labour party has performed a u turn on the SEN review and was worried about the prospect of having to face the wrath of an increasingly militant and determined group of parents and supporters who are fighting to save theirschools or are they more worried about losing their seats at the next election?

Apparently the Labour party has now agreed to ..

Keep Bamburgh school open
Keep Oakleigh Gardens school open and merge it with Greenfields
Close Epinay school

It seems that councillor Khan’s mole has unwittingly – or was it deliberately – scuppered councillor Iain Malcolm’s plan to spin the truth and announce the news when it best suited him.

Message to Graham Rigg and David Potts (I know they’re avid readers of this blog, so they’ll see this)

Over the past few days, Graham Rigg and David Potts have been having a right old time of it while Mr Monkey has been busy moving house.

Rigg, with plenty of time on his hands as an unemployed man whose been a bit of a failure in life (still in an upstairs flat in your mid 50s, Graham? There are crisis loans for things like that…) has thrown some horrific slurs his way.

But let us not forget: with more members than any of the other opposition groups, they’re still the biggest opposition group. They’re THE political success story in this borough’s history.

No political party has came anywhere near achieving their kind of success in modern times in South Tyneside.

The Tories have three councillors, as do the Lib Dems. The Tories havemade NO gains during David Potts tenure as leader, despite Labour disintegrating nationally over the past five years. Surely questions have to be asked about his competence?

The Progressives, once a dominant political force in the borough, have just five councillors and their hanging on by their finger tips. Take Jim Capstick he scrapped through by just three votes at the last elections.

So tell us, which group/party is doing things wrong…

I personally believe that Rigg and Potts hate the Independent Alliance because they don’t believe in democracy. They believe candidates should be vetted by old school parties, given the nod by party chiefs, and then step forward for election. It’s an insiders world, and they want it to stay that way.

Take councillor Ahmed Khan for instance, they don’t believe a member of the public, (A BLASTED OUTSIDER!) unsoiled by previous political roles, should stand and be duly elected. They don’t want to see the local political gentleman’s club fall apart, worse still their cosy little world being exposed for all to see.

Well Mr Monkey has news for Rigg, Potts and the ruling elite; there are more ‘councillor Khan’s’ on the way.

The Independents are still the official opposition group on the council. The Progressives also vote alongside them. They’re still close. They are a force to be reckoned with.

If you want confirmation of this go to the next council meeting on 12th May. You’re certain to see the Independent Alliance doing the job they were elected to do – oppose the ruling party. On the other hand you’ll see the Tories happily accepting a few tit-bits (PAID OF COURSE), handed out by Labour in a desperate attempt to buy their loyalty for the next 12 months.

Despite what Rigg says, since when have political groups standing in tinpot local elections had to have extensive manifestos and policies?

If so, point me in the direction of the weighty manifestos put forward by local councillors at the last election…You can’t – you’re talking bullshit. They put out double-sided A5 leaflets outlining how they’d improved their wards – they didn’t put out 20-year plans for tourism and business in the town.

At local level it’s about sound money, sound running of the council, competence, honesty and integrity. With a leader and deputy leader who’ve been big business successes themselves, I trust them to do just that.

Why aren’t they that forthcoming about what they “would” do? Probably because there’s no chance of them forming an executive to run the council for two or three years. So why live in fantasy land when they can tell the public what they’ll OPPOSE. When they’re close to seeing the opposition make it into power, they’ll tell the public what they’ll do. If the public like it, they’ll keep on voting. If they don’t, watch them lose their seats.

Just one question, Curly – do you ever get in touch with people you’re about to slur to ask for their take on your inaccurate claims?

Mr Monkey has just learned that the Indy’s were again light when it came to numbers at yesterday’s Full Council meeting.

Once again councillor Allan Branley was otherwise engaged and it now seems that councillor Harrison has taken a leaf out of councillor Branley’s book by not bothering to turn up to meetings.

A quick look at the stats shows that councillor Harrison’s attendance record is poor, especially for someone who criticises everyone elses record.

In the past year councillor Harrison has missed 3 out of a possible 8 CAF meetings, 5 out of a possible 11 Full Council meetings and hasn’t bothered attending any Licensing or Appeal committees or sub committees.

Councillor Harrison is paid a basic allowance of £7056 this equates to £641 per meeting – put another way he gets half of the £1,200 The King Sleaze, David Potts gets for attending his meetings.

As far as councillor Branley is concerned, his attendance record is almost a record in itself. He’s attended 0 out of 8 CAF’s, 0 out of 4 Audit committees and 3 out of a possible 11 Full Council meetings.

As councillor Branley doesn’t claim any allowances this equates to £0.00 per meeting.

Mr Monkey will be posting more details of councillor’s attendance record and the cost per meeting to the taxpayer shortly.

Council leader Iain Malcolm Miss Piggy and the borough’s Dominatrix, Irene Lucas might want to put their celebrations on hold following last week’s announcement by the Audit Commission that South Tyneside Council is rated a 4 star authority.

Mr Monkey has learned that the Audit Commission and it’s inspectors have become a laughing stock after they announced that Cambridge City Council won top marks for sound financial management and value for money – despite investing £9 million in Icelandic banks and a potential loss of £618,000 on Cambridge Folk Festival ticket sales.

The top score of four marks was awarded by the Audit Commission for the council’s use of resources and it was one of the 13 top performers in the country.

Council leader Cllr Ian Nimmo-Smith said: “The Audit Commission is aware of the financial issues in relation to the Icelandic deposits, which affect many councils, and the Folk Festival tickets. I can’t say to what extent they have been taken into account.”

He added: “I’m very pleased the successful way which we run things in Cambridge has been recognised by the Audit Commission. This endorses the recent survey results that showed that residents in Cambridge rated the city council as providing value for- money services at a higher level than other districts in the county.”

At the recent budget setting meeting, Cllr Lewis Herbert, Labour group leader, likened the Liberal Democrats’ management of council finances to a “road crash” with Cllr Nimmo- Smith at the wheel.

He said the Icelandic investment and Folk Festival losses, after an internet ticket sales company went into liquidation, were “self-inflicted”. He said he was surprised the council still received a four-star rating.

He added: “Losing £9 million in Icelandic investments and over £1 million in interest and the Folk Festival tickets represents a shocking failure of the council’s control systems.”

For the second year running, the finance and value for money element of the inspection gave the county council the top score of four.

Cllr John Reynolds, cabinet member for corporate services, said: “I am delighted that our inspection found that the way we manage our budget and spend council taxpayers’ money is of the highest order. We continue to work within an extremely tight financial climate but this score shows we are among the best councils in the country when it comes to financial management.”

These weaknesses are now most evident. For a Council to be declared “excellent” in the same week that it cuts services and raises taxes, and in the same year that it slashes staff pay, is crazy.

The Council have released a special issue of their staff newsletter to congratulate everyone on the achievement.

At the top of the list of high performing services are the Revenues and Benefits service, who deal with Council Tax payments and the administration of benefits to the needy. They too have received a top 4 star rating and yet a mixture of bad laws, bad government and crazy local decision making has seen many of the staff in that department lose a crushingly large proportion of their salary this year.

There’s nothing about this in the congratulatory press releases issued by the Council, the Audit Commission and the government.

After spending a couple of days with his family Mr Monkey’s feeling relaxed, refreshed and raring to go.

It seems this chimp has missed all the fun and games, especially at Thursday’s full council meeting.

Apparently the King of Sleaze, Tory Boy Potts made a right twat of himself with his ill thought out budget proposal. One of Mr Monkey’s sources reckons Pudgy Face’s pathetic performance might have been alcohol related – apparently he was stinking of drink, but more of this later.

Don’t worry bloggers it wont take long to catch up with what’s been happening, especially with so many loose lipped politicians ready to tell Mr Monkey anything after he’s bought them a pint or two.